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On the topic of “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 3- Love”

In my two previous posts, I talked about the first two episodes of the excellent Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared web series. If you haven’t watched parts 1 and 2 yet, do so now. Believe it or not, the strangeness and hilarity of the videos builds with each one, and it’s fun to see how they progress. Then watch part 3 above before reading more.

I think that part 3 has a stronger message than parts 1 or 2. As the title says, this one is about the concept of love…but is it really just about love?

I do believe in both familial and romantic love, and think love shared with other worthy people can be a wonderful thing. But the butterfly and his cult followers in this video are really talking about oft-repeated perversions of love.

These perversions are:

Love indiscriminately spread to the point of meaninglessness. (“Love all these people you’ve only just met, they all love you and each other, no really!”)

Love used in a meaningless, mechanical, pseudo-romantic sense. (“Save yourself for your special one, who you have to find and marry or you’ll be lonely forever, and you have to be together forever and it will work out and your love will grow infinitely!”)

Love used as a tool for religious brainwashing. (“We love you, we really do, so take that warm fuzzy feeling, you lonely person, and now feel it for our God and faith-based belief system! Or else!”)

This episode definitely has more bite to it. It more specifically references actual things that happen and are said in modern society. It follows a little bit of a different format from the first two (the red guy and the bird guy get left out of most of the fun) and the special effects and quality and quantity of puppetry are upped yet again. The Malcolm, King of Love at the end is especially impressive! And then the creators simply burnt it, damn! That’s dedication to art right there.

Do you have any thoughts on episode 3 that I missed? Do you think I’m wrong? Let me know in the comments.